BSB / WSB grids 2023

[Lost Soul]

graeme4130 said:

Rob 131 Sport said:

It will be interesting to see who is top BMW rider.

I’d go for Brookes or Leon
I think Brookes will be quicker off the mark, but Leon will be quicker once the package is up to speed

I'm going with Brookes, i think he's got to be or else people are going to start overlooking him in favour of younger up and coming riders, so this year is kind of make or break.
Hickman is FHO's talisman rider and road racing expert so he is okay but he won't challenge for BSB honours sadly and i just don't see Haslam having the same hunger that Brookes will have.

Prepared to be proved wrong, and in all honesty probably am way off the mark but that's how i see it unfolding this year

[Zarco]

DarthtaterM16 said:

graeme4130 said:

Rob 131 Sport said:

It will be interesting to see who is top BMW rider.

I’d go for Brookes or Leon
I think Brookes will be quicker off the mark, but Leon will be quicker once the package is up to speed

I'll go with Hickman.

I'll have Danny Buchan to make it interesting.

[egor110]

Zarco said:

DarthtaterM16 said:

graeme4130 said:

Rob 131 Sport said:

It will be interesting to see who is top BMW rider.

I’d go for Brookes or Leon
I think Brookes will be quicker off the mark, but Leon will be quicker once the package is up to speed

I'll go with Hickman.

I'll have Danny Buchan to make it interesting.

I'll go with bridewell then .

[trickywoo]

egor110 said:

Zarco said:

DarthtaterM16 said:

graeme4130 said:

Rob 131 Sport said:

It will be interesting to see who is top BMW rider.

I’d go for Brookes or Leon
I think Brookes will be quicker off the mark, but Leon will be quicker once the package is up to speed

I'll go with Hickman.

I'll have Danny Buchan to make it interesting.

I'll go with bridewell then .

Isn’t this discussion about top BM?

I’d like to see Buchan do well.

[DarthtaterM16]

Couple of livery reveals today. Quite a bit of bare lacquered carbon about this season it seems.

[Zarco]

trickywoo said:

egor110 said:

Zarco said:

DarthtaterM16 said:

graeme4130 said:

Rob 131 Sport said:

It will be interesting to see who is top BMW rider.

I’d go for Brookes or Leon
I think Brookes will be quicker off the mark, but Leon will be quicker once the package is up to speed

I'll go with Hickman.

I'll have Danny Buchan to make it interesting.

I'll go with bridewell then .

Isn’t this discussion about top BM?

I’d like to see Buchan do well.

You never know, Bridewell has been known to change bikes mid-season

[egor110]

Zarco said:

trickywoo said:

egor110 said:

Zarco said:

DarthtaterM16 said:

graeme4130 said:

Rob 131 Sport said:

It will be interesting to see who is top BMW rider.

I’d go for Brookes or Leon
I think Brookes will be quicker off the mark, but Leon will be quicker once the package is up to speed

I'll go with Hickman.

I'll have Danny Buchan to make it interesting.

I'll go with bridewell then .

Isn’t this discussion about top BM?

I’d like to see Buchan do well.

You never know, Bridewell has been known to change bikes mid-season

He needs to go back to wearing random odd boots , that year he raced for 3 teams was his best and quite often he had odd boots on .

[Rene Souffle]

Lost Soul said:

DarthtaterM16 said:

FHO have got the latest bike.

Ahh. Just saw this. Apologies.

[Lost Soul]

If the recent tests are anything to go by, this season could be a good one.
The last test at Silverstone had Yamaha, Honda, BMW and Ducati all at the front or in the top 5.

[LukeBrown66]

Interesting after last years nonsense OMG are still black and gold nut no Rich Energy, and the bearded nutter has been rumbling again apparently! Odd they would keep the same colours though.

[graeme4130]

Lost Soul said:

If the recent tests are anything to go by, this season could be a good one.
The last test at Silverstone had Yamaha, Honda, BMW and Ducati all at the front or in the top 5.

You can take test results with a pinch of salt
Some riders like to make an early statement (and appease sponsors with headlines) and smash out fast laps in order to beat the top of the time sheets
Others work through a series of set ups and parts to collect data and don’t care too much about timesheet topping, only that certain changes make improvements in certain areas and others don’t
Also worth remembering that not all the riders will have done many laps on the SCX tyre, which is the superpole tyre of choice, but largely irrelevant over most race distances and conditions
The Yamaha of Kyle Ryde is maybe an anomaly as they only have really minimal part changes from last year, so have loads of data already
It’s pretty rare that whoever tops all the testing timesheets is the one with the best results at the end of the season
Especially this year where both Doni and Silverstone tests were largely a wash out

[Lost Soul]

graeme4130 said:

Lost Soul said:

If the recent tests are anything to go by, this season could be a good one.
The last test at Silverstone had Yamaha, Honda, BMW and Ducati all at the front or in the top 5.

You can take test results with a pinch of salt
Some riders like to make an early statement (and appease sponsors with headlines) and smash out fast laps in order to beat the top of the time sheets
Others work through a series of set ups and parts to collect data and don’t care too much about timesheet topping, only that certain changes make improvements in certain areas and others don’t
Also worth remembering that not all the riders will have done many laps on the SCX tyre, which is the superpole tyre of choice, but largely irrelevant over most race distances and conditions
The Yamaha of Kyle Ryde is maybe an anomaly as they only have really minimal part changes from last year, so have loads of data already
It’s pretty rare that whoever tops all the testing timesheets is the one with the best results at the end of the season
Especially this year where both Doni and Silverstone tests were largely a wash out

Agreed but it makes a change compared to last years pre season testes where it was essentially a Yamaha lock out. I guess we will soon see who was sand bagging and who was showing genuine pace and like you said the only anomalies should be Ryde and O'Halloran, even Hickman maybe.
Either way, it has the potential to be a cracking season

[DarthtaterM16]

Really like the PBM livery for this season. Bit of a Marlboro/old school AMA look to it.

[Turn7]

DarthtaterM16 said:

Really like the PBM livery for this season. Bit of a Marlboro/old school AMA look to it.

Parts Unlimited AMA bike was my first thought…

I like it.

[Zarco]

DarthtaterM16 said:

Really like the PBM livery for this season. Bit of a Marlboro/old school AMA look to it.

Much better than some of their more recent ones.

[Lost Soul]

Apparently Tim Neave has parted ways with McAms Yamaha and is taking a break from racing.

So do they replace him for the remainder of the season? Or just put everything behind O’Halloran?

[LukeBrown66]

Would not surprise me at all to see Tarran back there soon, that Honda in WSS is a total waste of his time.

[Lost Soul]

LukeBrown66 said:

Would not surprise me at all to see Tarran back there soon, that Honda in WSS is a total waste of his time.

I think he'll stay, he want's to be at World level not BSB and yep, the Honda is dogst but it's a ride for him.

[Normodog]

Lost Soul said:

I think he'll stay, he want's to be at World level not BSB and yep, the Honda is dogst but it's a ride for him.

Taz has also been out in Japan testing the superbike for Honda in Lecuona's absence.

He might aswell stick it out and hope for some results later in the year. Regardless of how this year pans out he would be able to walk into a top line bsb ride next year.

[DarthtaterM16]

Tito Rabat’s back…

Replacing Neave at McAms for the next two rounds.